We here at Radio Archives were pleasantly surprised when, with more than a smidgen of trepidation, we released our first Terror Tales audiobook last year. It was a hit, as were a slew of Terror Tales eBooks we subsequently released.

We thought: If customers like this brand of retro-horror so much, why not go back to the dark well from which it all sprang? That meant Dime Mystery Magazine, the pulp that started the Weird Menace sub-genre back around Halloween of the horrific year of 1933. Since we were planning on celebrating the 80th anniversary of Popular Publication’s G-8 And His Battles Aces and The Spider during this autumnal epoch, why not do the same for their sister publication?

In brief, Popular Publications had a foundering title in Dime Mystery Book. It featured lead mystery novels with an emphasis on the sinister and the suspenseful. But readers shunned it. Instead of canceling the magazine, Popular dropped the word Book from the title, booted out of the feature novel, and ramped up the terror and horror. The reinvigorated Dime Mystery Magazine went through the roof, spawning Terror Tales and Horror Stories, as well as lesser, but equally sinister satellites.

Dime Mystery magazine remained the flagship, however. It offered the best writers doing their most memorable stories. All were built around the premise of ordinary young couples thrown into contact with demonic forces they must battle alone. No calling 911 allowed! Up against the Devil, it was Do or Die….

For our first Dime Mystery audiobook, we’ve chosen a trio of terrible tales of tension and terror, each one weirder than the one before! Here’s the rundown:

Norvell Page’s dark drama, “The Dance of the Skeletons” leads the fear parade. It had the distinction of being the cover story to that first reimagined issue of Dime Mystery eighty years ago in 1933, and lead directly to Page writing The Spider series. It’s not only the first true Weird Menace story, but it’s also among the longest and most horrific ever penned! This truly frightening tale plunges an intrepid police investigator into the gripping mystery of the men who become skeletonized by a hideous, unseen predator.Then go behind the vampire-haunted scenes of a 1936 stage performance of Dracula in Frederick C. Davis’ eerie “When the Bat Man Thirsts.” Finally, we conclude with Paul Ernst’s haunting “Brides of the Dust Demon,” wherein a strange doom stalks the besieged inhabitants of a dying Dust Bowl town.

These stories were chosen to showcase the many darkling facets of the Weird Menace experience. All three novelettes are read by Michael C. Gwynne. He is still recovering from the experience….

The Dance of the Skeletons

by Norvell W. Page, Read by Michael C. Gwynne

Chapter 1: A Skull Grins

Chapter 2: Headquarters Horror

Chapter 3: The Man In the River

Chapter 4: Masked Murder

Chapter 5: The Bones in the Bed

Chapter 6: Last Warning

Chapter 7: Skeleton’s Encore

Chapter 8: The Crimson Pool

Chapter 9: Rattling Bones

Chapter 10: The Fifth Skeleton

Chapter 11: Menace Unseen

Chapter 12: The Black Yacht

Chapter 13: The Skeleton Gibbet

Chapter 14: Murder Unmasked!

Chapter 15: Ship of Death

When the Bat Man Thirsts

by Frederick C. Davis, Read by Michael C. Gwynne

Chapter 1: The Prolonged Howl of a Dog

Chapter 2: The Winged Thing

Chapter 3: Death’s Cue

Chapter 4: Satan’s Prompter

Chapter 5: Death Drops the Curtain

Brides of the Dust Demon

by Paul Ernst, Read by Michael C. Gwynne

Chapter 1: Dust Clouds of Doom

Chapter 2: Mad Murder

Chapter 3: The Call

Chapter 4: The Storm Devil

Chapter 5: Satan’s Cathedral

Chapter 6: Capture

Chapter 7: Hell’s Rites

Will Murray is the Series Producer for Will Murray’s Pulp Classics line of Pulp Audiobooks and Pulp eBooks. Will is the author of over 50 novels in popular series ranging from The Destroyer to Mars Attacks. Collaborating posthumously with the legendary Lester Dent, he has written to date twelve Doc Savage novels, with Skull Island, Death’s Dark Domain, Desert Demons, Horror in Gold, and The Infernal Buddha now available. For National Public Radio, Murray adapted The Thousand-Headed Man for The Adventures of Doc Savage in 1985, and recently edited Doc Savage: The Lost Radio Scripts of Lester Dent for Moonstone Books. He is versed in all things pulp.

Michael C. Gwynne’s outstanding achievements have encompassed all areas of entertainment – radio, television and film. Through out the sixties Michael could be heard as a DJ in San Francisco, New York City and Los Angeles. Shortly after breaking the Guinness Book of Records for nonstop drumming, 92 hours at the 1965 “Drum-A-Thon” in Honolulu, Michael was cast in the TV series The Psychiatrist by a young Steven Spielberg.

Michael went on to work behind the scenes on Spielberg’s breakthrough film Jaws where he can be heard as the DJ on beach radios. He continued to land roles in popular television shows: Kojak, Dallas, CHiPS, Hill Street Blues, Cagney & Lacey, and Falcon Crest before he crossed paths again with Spielberg when he was cast in an episode of Amazing Stories directed by Martin Scorsese.

Although Michael has worked steadily as a character actor in television and film over the last three decades his first love is still radio where he enjoys the challenges of a fast paced production, bringing a character to life with nothing but his deep thrilling voice!